Addition Of New Neurons Is Essential For Memory Formation

It is now generally accepted that new neurons are generated in the adult mammalian brain, but until now it has been unclear whether or not these neurons are essential for memory formation.

This week (Nature, Vol. 410, No. 6826, 15 Mar 2001), Tracey Shors of Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, and colleagues present evidence that the addition of new neurons to the hippocampus of adult rats is essential for at least one form of memory — the kind concerning the timing of learned responses, and temporal relationships between events.

"The results support the idea that it might, one day, be possible to add new, fully functional neurons into existing brain circuitry to treat diseases of the nervous system," says Jeffrey D. Macklis of Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, in an accompanying News and Views article.